The Horseman of Calamity

Chapter 1 - Escapism

Anger is a powerful and regretful emotion. Hung found himself surrounded by colossal unfamiliar trees that loomed over him. The fading memory of his home, family, and friends ran through the foreground of his mind. This wasn't a fantasy, this was real.

Just several hours earlier, Hung Ly had gazed out through his window, it was just past 5:30 p.m. and the sun was already set. The faint ticking of his clock reminded him that time was passing, and he was sure he didn't have enough time or energy to do all of his homework, eat, and make time for his friends and family; yet, he still managed to do so every day. He tapped on his desk; the sound synced with that of the clock.

Tick. Tap. Tick.

He breathed out a great sigh and slumped into his chair. Oftentimes he would just sit in his room like this, stressed about the usual high school teen duties. The upcoming week would be SAT testing, a doctor's appointment, getting his driver's license, and keeping up his grades, like usual. Exhausting. Now two weeks away from his 17th birthday, uncertainty swarmed his thoughts; like what the hell he was going to do after graduating high school, even if he was more than a year from graduating.

The weight of his thoughts weighed down his already droopy eyes. He thought about how nice it would be to just escape the monotony of life and live in a fantasy world. Maybe become a king and rule over a kingdom or be a dungeon-faring wizard that could shoot fireballs. Or, perhaps he could get a magical sword and go defeat an evil demon lord. How wonderful it would be to just forget about the mundanity of life and live as a larger-than-life figure.

His eye suddenly twitched in annoyance as he scoffed at himself for imagining something so overplayed and cliche. He had seen more than enough generic fantasies with a vanilla man protagonist who was immensely powerful right off the bat and is able to get all of the girls without effort. That type of writing was like junk food to him though, fun to digest but not very nourishing. But as much as he hated it, it was fun to occasionally believe he was that "hero".

That evening, he went downstairs for dinner and, at the very moment she set eyes on him, was berated by his mom for anything and everything.

"You're always on that phone, how about you help me prepare dinner for once?"

"Okay, what do you want me to do?"

"Shouldn't you just know by now?!"

Something along those lines usually happened between him and his mom. Their conversations always escalated into pointless arguments, and their language barrier certainly didn't help.

That day the family ate heaping bowls of homemade pho. Steaming and warm, he sat as the scent of the beefy broth wafted to his nose. Hung ate the noodles, perfectly content and relieved that his family was eating in peace and enjoying their dinner together. Of course, that still didn't stop his mom from complaining about any little detail or mistake.

Afterward, though, Hung and his mother got into a particularly heated conversation. Which ended in Hung simply walking away and locking himself in his room. His mother had said something about Hung's hair being too long, to which Hung overreacted. All of it was completely pointless.

In the privacy of his room, he cursed his family out, but in a quiet shouting way that prevented them from hearing him but loud enough for him to vent. He jumped into his bed and wrapped himself in his warm blankets. He continued whispering muffled curses into the folds of his blankets while scrolling through his phone. The furrows on his forehead began to loosen, and his shoulders, which previously sat stiff, now relaxed and eased back into his body. A smudge of guilt gnawed at his insides as he planned an apology for his mom, though he was still mad nonetheless.